Access equipment

ABSTRACT

Access equipment of the kind comprising a boom assembly pivotally attached at one end to a supporting structure and having a cage or working platform at its other end, the boom assembly being movable relative to the supporting structure to raise the cage or platform to an elevated working position, and comprising at least one stretcher supporting member removably attached to a corner of the cage or platform and rotatable thereon thus to receive a stretcher from any direction without angular adjustment of the cage or platform. Two or more stretcher supporting members may be provided, each mounted at one corner of the cage or platform such that they may be aligned one with another whereby one or more stretchers may be maneuvered on to a first of said members and slidably transferred to another of said members so that a further stretcher or stretchers can then be received by said first member.

United States Patent [191 Ashworth Aug. 20, 1974 ACCESS EQUIPMENT 3,487,952 1/1970 Owens 182/2 [75] Inventor: gi i g Ashworth Dudley Primary Examiner-Reinaldo P. Machado g Attorney, Agent, or FirmNorris & Bateman [73] Assignee: Simon Engineering Dudley Limited,

Stockport, Cheshire, England [5 7 ABSTRACT Access equipment of the kind comprising a boom assembly pivotally attached at one end to a supporting structure and having a cage or working platform at its other end, the boom assembly being movable relative to the supporting structure to raise the cage or platform to an elevated working position, and comprising at least'one stretcher supporting member removably attached to a corner of the cage or platform and rotatable thereon thus to receive a stretcher from any direction without angular adjustment of the cage or platform. Two or more stretcher supporting members may be provided, each mounted at one corner of the cage or platform such that they may be aligned one with another whereby one or more stretchers may be maneuvered on to a first of said members and slidably transferred to another of said members so that a further stretcher or stretchers can then be received by said first member.

12 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures 1 ACCESS EQUIPMENT This invention relates to access equipment of the kind (hereinafter termed of the kind referred to) comprising a boom assembly pivotally attached at one end to a supporting structure and having a cage or working platform at its other end, said boom assembly being movable with respect to the supporting structure thus to raise the cage or platform to an elevated position above the latter.

Access equipment of the kind referred to is extensively used for fire fighting and rescue purposes, and attempts have been made to provide arrangements to accommodate a stretcher or stretchers for injured personnel in the region of the cage or platform usually in the form of a shelf on one outer face of the latter. The principal difficulty in providing a facility for carrying a stretcher or stretchers in the manner aforesaid arises from the fact that it is often required to manoeuvre a stretcher from an upper window of a building or some other elevated position onto the cage or platform. This requires the-personnel in the cage or platform to support the weight of the stretcher, which is difficult and even impossible in many cases, as access to the particular window may result in the face of the cage or platform having the stretcher carrying facility not being adjacent to the window.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a stretcher-carrying facility on access equipment of the kind referred to, which is itself readily manoeuvrable with respect to the cage or platform and, for example, a window, such that the angular disposition of the cage or platform to the window is unimportant, and the weight of the stretcher is carried in' the cage plan area, where it can be handled by personnel in the cage, rather than outside the cage area, where handling from within the cage is difficult or impossible.

Thus, according to the present invention, access equipment of the kind referred to comprises at least one member adapted to support a stretcher, said member being removably attached to said cage or platform and capable of angular adjustment relative thereto when attached, suitably to receivea stretcher from more than one direction without angular adjustmentof said cage or platform. I

Preferably two or more such supporting members are provided, one at each corner of said cage or platform and capable of being aligned whereby stretchers may be manoeuvred onto one of said supporting members and transferred to the others so that further stretchers can be received by said first supporting member.

The invention will become further apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example only, one form of access equipment embodying the invention.

Of the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of the equipment as a whole mounted for transportation on a vehicle; FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of part of the equipment with a stretcher-carrying facility provided thereon; and

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a modified arrangement.

Referring now to the drawings, the equipment generally comprises a vehicle 10 serving as a supporting structure for a pivotally mounted boom assembly 11 having at the free end of the uppermost boom a cage or working platform 12. Means (not shown) are provided in the normal manner for maintaining the cage 12 level for all positions of the boom structure 11.

The cage 12 essentially comprises a base 13 and four corner posts 14 interconnected by rails 15. Rotatably mounted in a socket formed by one of the corner posts 14 is a pedestal 16 having channel-sectioned guide rails 17 which extend inparallel spaced relationship to either side of the central supporting column of the pedestal 16.

In use the pedestal 16 can be rotated through 360 to provide easy access thereto and a stretcher 18 can be run on to the rails 17 thus to be supported by the pedestal 16.

Referring now particularly to FIG. 3 it will be seen that if two such pedestals 16 are provided at diagonally opposite corners of the cage 12, then by locating them in the position shown in FIG. 3 an extended stretchersupporting assembly is provided such that two or more stretchers can be received thereby from either end of this assembly. It will be noted that in this arrangement the rails 17 of each pedestal are of such a length that they will extend to a position approximately over the central point of the base 13 of the cage, so that they almost reach those of the other pedestal. In this way, transfer of a stretcher from one pedestal to the other is facilitated. Preferably, the lengths of the rails to one side of the central supporting member are slightly less than half of the diagonal dimension across the plan of the cage, and to the other side are equal to half of the side to side dimension thereof.

If required the pedestals could be telescopically extendable vertically to raise the stretchers over the head of the operators in the cage and to lower them when it is required to remove them from the cage at ground level.

It is not intended to limit the invention to the above example only, many variations such as might readily occur to one skilled in the art being possible without departing from the scope of the invention.

For example, more than two pedestals may be provided on the cage or platform and these may be arranged, one in each corner so that four stretchercarrying assemblies are provided. It is envisaged that the pedestal or pedestals will normally be carried on the vehicle and will be attached to the cage or platform at any corner or corners thereof when required, so that when the latter is to be used for fire fighting purposes alone the operator is not hindered by the presence of the pedestal of pedestals mounted on the cage.

What is claimed is:

1. Access equipment of the kind comprising a boom assembly pivotally attached at one end to a supporting structure and having a cage or working platform at its other end, said boom assembly being movable with respect to the supporting structure thus to raise the cage or platform to an elevated position above said structure, and comprising at least one member adapted to support a stretcher, said member being removably attached to said cage or platform and capable of angular adjustment relative thereto when attached, slidably to receive a stretcher from more than one direction without angular adjustment of said cage or platform.

2. Access equipment according to claim 1, wherein at least two such supporting members are provided,

each adapted to be mounted at one corner of said cage or platform and angularly adjustable to become aligned with at least one other of said members such that a stretcher can be manoeuvred on to a first of said members and slidably transferred to another of said members so that a further stretcher or stretchers can then be received by said first member.

3. Access equipment according to claim 1, wherein the supporting member comprises a pedestal adapted to be rotatably located in a socket formed by a corner post of said cage or platform, and a pair of spaced parallel guide rails mounted on said pedestal and adapted slidably to receive the side members of a stretcher for longitudinal movement along said rails.

4. Access equipment according to claim 2, wherein each supporting member comprises a pedestal adapted to be rotatably located in a socket formed by a corner post of said cage or platform, and a pair of spaced par allel guide rails mounted on said pedestal and adapted slidably to receive the side members of a stretcher for longitudinal movement along said rails.

5. Access equipment according to claim 1, wherein the supporting member can be rotated relative to said cage or platform through 360.

6. Access equipment according to claim 2, wherein each supporting member can be rotated relative to said cage or platform through 360.

7. Access equipment according to claim 2, wherein each supporting member is of such a length as to be capable of extending at least in one direction to a position approximately over the central point of the cage or platform thus to facilitate transferring of a stretcher between two aligned supporting members.

8. Access equipment according to claim 7, wherein each supporting member extends on one side of its pedestal to slightly less than half of the diagonal dimension across the plan of the cage or platform, and on the other side to substantially equal to half of a side-to-side dimension thereof.

9. Access equipment according to claim 3, wherein said pedestal is telescopically extendible whereby its associated supporting member may be raised and lowered relative to said cage or platform.

10. Access equipment according to claim 4, wherein each said pedestal is telescopically extendible whereby its associated supporting member may be raised and lowered relative to said cage or platform.

11. Access equipment according to claim 3, wherein said guide rails are of channel section to prevent transverse movement of a stretcher mounted therein.

12. Access equipment according to claim 4, wherein said guide rails are of channel section to prevent transverse movement of a stretcher mounted therein. 

1. Access equipment of the kind comprising a boom assembly pivotally attached at one end to a supporting structure and having a cage or working platform at its other end, said boom assembly being movable with respect to the supporting structure thus to raise the cage or platform to an elevated position above said structure, and comprising at least one member adapted to support a stretcher, said member being removably attached to said cage or platform and capable of angular adjustment relative thereto when attached, slidably to receive a stretcher from more than one direction without angular adjustment of said cage or platform.
 2. Access eqUipment according to claim 1, wherein at least two such supporting members are provided, each adapted to be mounted at one corner of said cage or platform and angularly adjustable to become aligned with at least one other of said members such that a stretcher can be manoeuvred on to a first of said members and slidably transferred to another of said members so that a further stretcher or stretchers can then be received by said first member.
 3. Access equipment according to claim 1, wherein the supporting member comprises a pedestal adapted to be rotatably located in a socket formed by a corner post of said cage or platform, and a pair of spaced parallel guide rails mounted on said pedestal and adapted slidably to receive the side members of a stretcher for longitudinal movement along said rails.
 4. Access equipment according to claim 2, wherein each supporting member comprises a pedestal adapted to be rotatably located in a socket formed by a corner post of said cage or platform, and a pair of spaced parallel guide rails mounted on said pedestal and adapted slidably to receive the side members of a stretcher for longitudinal movement along said rails.
 5. Access equipment according to claim 1, wherein the supporting member can be rotated relative to said cage or platform through 360*.
 6. Access equipment according to claim 2, wherein each supporting member can be rotated relative to said cage or platform through 360*.
 7. Access equipment according to claim 2, wherein each supporting member is of such a length as to be capable of extending at least in one direction to a position approximately over the central point of the cage or platform thus to facilitate transferring of a stretcher between two aligned supporting members.
 8. Access equipment according to claim 7, wherein each supporting member extends on one side of its pedestal to slightly less than half of the diagonal dimension across the plan of the cage or platform, and on the other side to substantially equal to half of a side-to-side dimension thereof.
 9. Access equipment according to claim 3, wherein said pedestal is telescopically extendible whereby its associated supporting member may be raised and lowered relative to said cage or platform.
 10. Access equipment according to claim 4, wherein each said pedestal is telescopically extendible whereby its associated supporting member may be raised and lowered relative to said cage or platform.
 11. Access equipment according to claim 3, wherein said guide rails are of channel section to prevent transverse movement of a stretcher mounted therein.
 12. Access equipment according to claim 4, wherein said guide rails are of channel section to prevent transverse movement of a stretcher mounted therein. 